A communications receiver usually requires relatively accurate a priori knowledge of the signal communication parameters, such as the symbol rate and the carrier frequency offset, used in the transmission of a communication signal. In a cooperative link setting (such as when transmitter and receiver are working cooperatively), this can be established as part of the receiver design. For example, the receiver can be designed to support one or more discrete sets of symbol rates used by the transmitter. Coordination between the transmitter and receiver can be used in such environments to ensure the operating symbol rate matches within some tolerance. In contrast, within a non-cooperative setting (such as when the receiver is not an intended recipient of the transmissions or when the transmitter is not transmitting according to an established public protocol), there is no a priori knowledge of the symbol rate. Accordingly, matched-filter approaches cannot operate properly in this environment; since the filter coefficients need to be set based on a given samples-per-symbol relationship (derived from the symbol rate), which is unknown a priori.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications, and variations thereof will be apparent to those in light of the present disclosure.